Global Renault sales nosedive 35 per cent in first half of 2020

Sales of Renault, Alpine, Dacia and Lada vehicles slumped to 1,256,658 units between January and June this year – an incredible 34.9 per cent drop the first six months of 2019.

The market with the biggest drop-off in sales was India (-49.4 per cent), followed closely by Europe, where Groupe Renault only delivered 623,854 vehicles – a decline of 48.1 per cent.

China (-20.8 per cent) and Brazil (-39.0 per cent) also posted sizeable drops in the number of cars sold.

The only silver lining to a particularly dark cloud for Renault in the first half of 2020 was booming sales of the pure-electric Renault ZOE. In Europe, Renault shifted 37,540 examples of its battery-powered hatch, representing a rise of nearly 50 per cent over the previous year.

The increase in ZOE sales, plus the launch of hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Clio, Captur and Megane, means Renault is now set to meet its aggressive Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) targets for 2020, helping the car-maker avoid costly financial penalties.

From 2021, the EU fleet-wide average emission limit for new cars will be 95g/km of CO2.

This emission level corresponds to a fuel consumption of around 4.1L/100km of petrol and 3.6L/100km of diesel.

Groupe Renault's sales chief Denis Le Vote said the company was well-placed to launch a recovery in the remaining half of 2020.

"The world has gone through an unprecedented crisis with a major impact on our business," he said. "As soon as the recovery began, our plants and sales network quickly mobilised to meet our customers' needs, with demand sustained in June by government aid measures in Europe."